What Is The Role Of Community To Crowdfunding?

Entrepreneurship is often a collaborative effort. According to Plumfund, this collaboration shares information, connections and resources in order to discover new opportunities. After the invention and introduction of the Internet, these types of collaborations have increased over the past decade. This online field has created advantages and new opportunities for collaborations to take place in every geographical location.

Crowdfunding is quickly emerging as one online platform that can be used to support the entrepreneurial community. So, what is crowdfunding? It is a way that online request for resources and support can be presented in front an audience of global supporters. In exchange, these supporters are rewarded. This system allows budding entrepreneurs the chance to ask for support from a network of distributors that can range from several hundred to several thousand.

There are crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and these platforms encourage entrepreneurs to bring their projects to life by starting a fundraising campaign on the platform. In fact, there are success stories from entrepreneurs who have raised staggering amounts of funding in a relatively short period of time.

The Launch Of Crowdfunding

The first platform of this type was first created in 2001. Since then, over 450 crowdfunding sites have been launched. These platforms use systems that are already in place in order to facilitate the exchange between entrepreneurs and supporters. For example, payment platforms such as Amazon payments may be used, social media platforms such as Facebook and video platforms such as YouTube.

Unlike traditional forms of financing, entrepreneurs can appeal directly to their donors and supporters by creating a project profile. This profile should include:

Once the fields are completed, the project is then submitted for approval. It will then be placed on the public page and supporters can choose to donate to the project.

Online Community

The success or failure of a crowdfunding project is directly related to the building of community around the project, the distributed work and the amount of crowd work that is placed into the project.

An online community is any type of virtual space where people gather to interact, learn, converse, play or share resources. In these spaces, the members can contribute to the community’s growth by managing the forum, posting or other menial tasks.

However, there are some barriers to starting an online community. Some of these barriers include launching the community, maintaining the community, attracting members and keeping these members motivated. Crowdfunding entrepreneurs can prevent many of these barriers by asking friends and family to promote their campaign, utilize social media and send out personalized emails. It will also help if they express urgency or the reason why the funds must be raised by a particular date.

In this new age of entrepreneurship, it is critical now more than ever before that community support is necessary in the entrepreneurial process. Unfortunately, many project creators fail to understand how much work is involved and can quickly become overwhelmed. However, an environment of mutual support can help make startups more successful.